Selective call messaging, such as paging messaging, involves transmitting a message or a page to an intended radio receiver by radio frequency (RF) signals. The page is received from an originator at a selective call terminal and is encoded, along with an address assigned to the radio receiver, into a format recognizable by the receiver. Additionally, in many paging formats, error correction information is encoded as well. This error correction information is typically in the form of parity bits which can be later utilized by the radio receiver to detect and correct errors in the message. The message is then transmitted for reception within a selective call system coverage area in which the receiver is expected to be located.
Conventionally, the selective call message is received and decoded by the radio receiver having the address included with the message. Thereafter, error correction computations are performed, using the transmitted parity bits, to detect and correct any errors in the message. However, typical algorithms for error correction only provide for the correction of a small number of bits of the message. Consequently, when the number of errors in the message is greater than a predetermined number, the message can not be entirely corrected. In this situation, the message is usually discarded. Conversely, when the message is received with no errors or when the errors can be corrected, the message is stored and, in many types of conventional receivers, presented to a user using a presentation device, e.g., a display, included in the receiver. In this manner, the user is prevented from reading erroneous messages which may be unintelligible.
As technology has advanced, smaller, more streamlined radio receivers have been developed in which, due to space constraints, no presentation device is included. Instead, such a radio receiver is coupled to an external presentation device to which received and stored messages are downloaded. The external presentation device can be, for instance, a personal computer, a printer, or other types of devices adapted to receive messages from a radio receiver. The user can, in this way, read the messages from the external device, e.g., printer or personal computer. Using this technology, selective call messages are still normally error-corrected to the extent provided for by the error correction algorithm which is used by the radio receiver. However, because the messages can now be downloaded to many different types of external presentation devices, some of which may include additional computing power, there exists an opportunity to process received messages in different ways depending upon the type of device to which a message is to be downloaded.